Smart Meters

Major smart meter manufacturers have a history in the traditional metering market and were earlier movers into the smart meter market. All either produce more than meter products and/or have formed collaborations with other smart grid companies to have connections at all parts of the smart grid chain. In addition the meters they offer are […]

Nuclear Power

Two of the mainstream generating technologies nuclear power and coal-fired generation are experiencing re-emergence after some years of stagnation or decline. Some countries that relied heavily on indigenous coal have phased it out, either because of declining reserves of economically recoverable coal or for environmental reasons. Coal has been stigmatised for environmental reasons, but it […]

Nuclear power in Poland

Poland has substantial energy reserves, mostly coal and in 2008 imported 27% of TPES. The government decided in 2005 to diversify energy resources and to reduce carbon and sulphur emissions by introducing nuclear power, with the first plant coming on-line soon after 2020. 11.5 GW of nuclear capacity was initially proposed but may be too […]

Oil Prices

Generally, oil prices have been rising since the turn of the 21st century, de making unconventional oil resources more economically viable. Wars, cuts in production, price controls and economic crises are a few examples of factors affecting oil prices, along with factors affecting demand such as uncharacteristically warm winters reducing demand for heating. Suez Crisis: […]

OPEC

OPEC is an intergovernmental Organization that was formed in 1960. It was set up as a reaction to an international oil market dominated by ‘Seven Sisters’ multinational companies. Based on the ‘inalienable right of all countries to exercise permanent sovereignty over their natural resources in the interest of their national development’ The four founding members […]

The Early Origins of Electricity Transmission and Distribution

Although primitive uses of electricity and magnetism had been known for centuries its real possibilities were discovered in the hundred years leading up to the last quarter of the 19th century. Names like Benjamin Franklin, Michael Faraday, James Watt, Luigi Galvani, Nicola Tesla, and Alessandro Volta resonate from the schoolroom, as the men who uncovered […]